CONSPIRE: infected? logon takes forever

CONSPIRE, here's the response to the ESET run you suggested i run: D:\Program Files\Uniblue\RegistryBooster 2010\Launcher.exe a variant of Win32/RegistryBooster application D:\Program Files\Uniblue\RegistryBooster 2010\registrybooster.exe Win32/RegistryBooster application F:\pcUtilities\pcDevices\Pantech\setup_1424277.exe a variant of Win32/Toolbar.Zugo application F:\pcUtilities\pcMaintenance\Microsoft\marc\Nero 7.10.1.0\Installation Files\Nero-7.10.1.0_eng_full.exe Win32/Toolbar.AskSBar application F:\pcUtilities\pcMaintenance\UniBlue\registryboosterplb.exe Win32/RegistryBooster application F:\pcUtilities\pcUtilities\AdHoc\Nero 7.10.1.0\Installation Files\Nero-7.10.1.0_eng_full.exe Win32/Toolbar.AskSBar application as suggested, i did not ask ESET to remove the files and i hit the uninstall button on ESET. ok, this is the first time so far that anything has been found; but i don't know if this is significant or not. thanks, ron ps: i added the text file of the items it found

Thank you. These detected items are not significant enough to cause any slow down on your PC. Did you try temporarily removing Outpost?

conspire, ok, i did remove outpost and the time went down significantly. i'll time it tonite so i can compare numbers. so, just before i did the ESET, i sent a query to outpost and they had me set up 'level-2' logging, take a log file, and send to them – they are analyzing now. i have 2 products, the outpost pro firewall and avast anti-virus free. i think i did the 'exclusions' properly, but can't be positive —- however, it is very clear that with outpost uninstalled, things go a lot faster but the internet response time is still slower than it used to be. looking at 'settings' in outpost pro, there are somewhere between 50-75 url postings to 10.xxx.xxx.xxx - i'm thinking maybe these are postings to their 'feedback' service. every time i disable it, and then get an update, the damnable thing re-installs itself. now, as to ESET, i didn't quite get if that stuff should be removed or not. let me know if it should be taken out. anyway, thanks for hanging in there with me. as a thought, would it be better if i got an all-in-one? like the complete avast suite, or norton suite or agnitum suite? maybe the components work better that way? antivirus, antispam, and firewall? any thoughts? thanks, ron

Feel free to remove them if you're not sure whether you need those stuff and think you don't need them.

I think Outpost's firewall didn't work so well on your computer. Not really familiar with Agnitium's product so can't really say much on what's going on.

For most users, it's good to save them some hassle to install several different components on a machine. I would certainly suggest you to take an Internet Security solution and get rid of those programs such as Registry Booster.

I'm not entirely sure how Norton products are now, perhaps switching it to Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 would be a good choice. That is just another option for you to consider..

However, one thing I would like to stress is that the starting point of a infection is surfing habit. So no matter how good a security product is, if you don't know what you are clicking, the risk of getting infection is generally higher. But in your case, you weren't really infected - It is Outpost that was giving you problems.

conspire, i just did a timing with outpost removed: time to internet post the logon dropped from ~80sec to ~50sec. still i think higher than it should be, but better than before. now, since internet response is slower than it had been, maybe the avast anti-virus is a tad heavy as well. ok then so to plan the plan: 1. i kill all these things: D:\Program Files\Uniblue\RegistryBooster 2010\Launcher.exe a variant of Win32/RegistryBooster application D:\Program Files\Uniblue\RegistryBooster 2010\registrybooster.exe Win32/RegistryBooster application F:\pcUtilities\pcDevices\Pantech\setup_1424277.exe a variant of Win32/Toolbar.Zugo application F:\pcUtilities\pcMaintenance\Microsoft\marc\Nero 7.10.1.0\Installation Files\Nero-7.10.1.0_eng_full.exe Win32/Toolbar.AskSBar application F:\pcUtilities\pcMaintenance\UniBlue\registryboosterplb.exe Win32/RegistryBooster application F:\pcUtilities\pcUtilities\AdHoc\Nero 7.10.1.0\Installation Files\Nero-7.10.1.0_eng_full.exe Win32/Toolbar.AskSBar application 2. then i look for a unified package, perhaps kaspersky. and i'll let you know before i decide to see what you think. thanks again, this will be my homework for the coming weekend. ron

Sounds good to me. When you say internet response, are you referring to all websites you visiting?

conspire, first, to your question: yes, logging in to any website seems to be taking longer. i believe that outpost and avast have some footprint on IE and slow things a tad. i will firm that up with some real numbers. second: i did remove the items that ESET found. very interesting: in add/remove programs, they were not installed apps – just left over folders from when i tried them in the past. very interesting that ESET found them. ok, so, to integrated suites: 1. one comparison picked ESET (1), Kaspersky (2) and Norton (3) 2. one comparison found Webroot (1), BitDefender (2) and Kaspersky (3) and also interesting, user comments liked the Avast suite because it was good and had a lite footprint on their machines. so i think i'll try the avast suite and then Kaspersky (which is the most expensive). what about ESET? i'm impressed that it commented on items i had used in the past even though they appeared to be no longer installed – just sitting there in an old folder. one final thought: i'm sitting here with wxp svc pk3, for say 2-3 yrs without a total rebuild. now, i did implement avast, outpost and malwarebytes over the past 4-6mos, and that's when i noticed performance slowing and slowing. maybe then this is more than just peeling back the layers; maybe the registry is fat and sloppy, and wxp needs a rebuild? maybe i'm better off doing w7 64bit. my machine is not a game machine; i do excel work for financial models. so audio/video is not relevant. maybe i should update wxp and put in an SSD drive, plus of course an internet security suite. reasonable? or just fishing? thanks, ron

ESET is fine as well, with a good detection rate. Give those 3 internet security suite a try and see which one you feel comfortable using. What are the regular maintenance you have done in the past? Also can you tell me what have you tried to improve the performance on your machine? Try to disable IE 8 add ons and see if there is any noticeable improvements. Click the Tools button, and then click Manage Add-ons. Under Show, click All add-ons. Click the add-on you want to disable, and then click Disable. It seems to me that the way you partition your hard drive doesn't seem to be leaving enough room for the OS to store temporary files and caching. Any reasons why you had your XP on E: drive instead of C:? Only install SSD drive when you have Win7 machine because they are better optimized with this particular OS.

conspire, i bot this dell laptop (inspiron 1525) and it came with vista. so i dual-booted, got wxp up and running. both os's got 25gb and i left 180gb for data. problem: more data space than i needed. then, i spent 2 weeks eliminating stuff on e:, defragging, and got e: to say 20% free. just probably not enough swap space. i can easily do the following (easily once i do an image with macrium): 1. up c: & e: to 50gb each 2. vista >> w7 64bitt 3. try out an integrated internet security suite with wxp 4. put xp emulation on w7 5. then port my apps to w7 i've been reading up on gpart'd. getting to the part where i move stuff so i can get 50gb of contiguous space for each of c: & e:. i'm still a little fuzzy on how to do that in the dual boot environment w/o really screwing up everything. anyway, that's the plan. this weekend – first i do the image backup. thanks, ron

conspire, ok, tried a few more things: 1. killed a few more programs i didn't need; e: is now 1/3 free, and no fragmentation 2. moved the swap file to f:, and expanded it to 6gb (the dell laptop has 4gb memory) 3. i uninstalled outpost pro, so i am running with no firewall and? time to hdd lite going off and launch of verizon is still almost 80sec so, it's not the swap file. rebuild the os? just too many add/delete from the registry? i can't think of anything else. although, 1 guy wrote in a blog to dust out the hdd, could be overheating. i guess it can't hurt to try. if you can think of anything, let me know.no matter how odd. thanks again for all the help. ron

I think at this point you would be better off in asking for help at Microsoft Windows section.

We have tried whatever methods that I can think of. I'm sorry that I could not be much of help for that matter.

conspire, i treat this as a learning experience – your help was phenomenal, i got a lot of stuff done i never would have thought of on my own, or would have tried on my own. particularly important – it's not a virus issue, that's for sure; it's not a swap file issue; it's not a disk space issue (pretty sure). and for sure, it was time well spent. thanks for your patience. ron